Increased Settlement of French North America/No Revolution?

[Burton K Wheeler]

No French Revolution, that is. What is the plausibility of some sort of French equivalent of the Highland clearances to reduce population pressure by settling more people from overpopulated regions of France in French North America?

 

[Lord Grattan]

France will thus have to spend more money to support, protect & defend the colonists. Whnere is the money going to come from? It's going to come from people at home in France. They'll feel the pinch and resent it, and resent the king too (especially if he throws more money into North America supporting colonial revolutions along the Atlantic seaboard.

 

[Burton K Wheeler]

French North America doesn't grow any cash crops that I know of to recommend it. How did the Northern British colonies justify settlement, then?

 

[whaleofashrimp]

French North America doesn't grow any cash crops that I know of to recommend it. How did the Northern British colonies justify settlement, then?

what about pelts? beaver furs...the french specialize in beaver

 

[Burton K Wheeler]

what about pelts? beaver furs...the french specialize in beaver

That's what they were there for in OTL, and that didn't require extensive settlement. I can see allowing larger settlements around beaver forts and the like as a way of "ramming down the fenceposts", though.

 

[rcduggan]

If there was a higher population base in New France, that might give them the upper hand in the Seven Years' War, and if they defeat the British because of that, there probably wouldn't be a French revolution.

 

[Burton K Wheeler]

If there was a higher population base in New France, that might give them the upper hand in the Seven Years' War, and if they defeat the British because of that, there probably wouldn't be a French revolution.

Maybe a French North America consisting only of territories north of the Ohio (no Louisiana)? The Acadians could be resettled in the Great Lakes region instead of the Mississippi Delta.